How Do You Give Useful Feedback on Brand Design?

Short answer: Useful design feedback describes a problem and ties it to the brief. It says what is not working and why, then leaves the solution to the designer. Feedback that prescribes the fix, such as "make the logo bigger" or "try it in blue", feels efficient. It usually produces your idea executed worse, and it adds rounds. Judge the work against what it has to do, not against what you personally like.

What makes design feedback useful?

Useful feedback does three things. It names a specific element. It describes the effect that element has on you, or on the customer. And it connects that effect to the goal of the work.

"The headline feels quiet next to the photo, and this page has to sell the new service first" is useful. The designer knows where to look, what is wrong and what matters. "Can we make it pop?" is not. It tells the designer you are unhappy without saying what about.

Why does prescriptive feedback backfire?

When you prescribe the fix, you skip the diagnosis. "Make the logo bigger" might be a response to a real problem. Perhaps the brand is hard to spot from a distance, or the layout is so crowded that nothing stands out. A bigger logo may solve neither. A designer who knows the actual problem has more ways to solve it, and often a better one.

Prescriptive feedback also costs time. Each instruction is carried out exactly, the result still feels wrong, and the next round starts from a weaker place. Rounds multiply. Budgets thin. Everyone gets frustrated with work that is, technically, following orders.

Taste versus judgment

Everyone has taste, and taste is not wrong. It is just not the brief. An owner who dislikes green is entitled to that view. The question for the review is whether green helps the brand do its job with the people it is meant to reach.

Judgment means testing the work against agreed criteria: the audience, the positioning and the places the brand has to work. If those criteria are not written down, the review will default to taste, because taste is all anyone has to go on. That is a brief problem, not a design problem. Our piece on why "make it look more premium" is not a brief covers what to fix upstream. The criteria themselves should come from your brand strategy.

Who should be in the review?

Fewer people than you think. Every extra voice adds another set of tastes and pulls the work toward the average. Agree on one decision maker before the first presentation. Others can be consulted, but their notes should go to that person, who sends back one consolidated set.

Contradictory feedback is the most expensive kind. "Make it bolder" from the founder and "make it calmer" from the sales lead cannot both be done. The designer ends up choosing between people instead of solving problems.

How to run a review that moves the work forward

• Look first, talk second. Give the work a few quiet minutes before discussion, so the first opinion spoken does not set the room.
• Start with what is working. Not to be polite. It tells the designer what to protect in the next round.
• Review in context. Look at a package at shelf distance, a website on a phone, a sign from across the street. Brand work is rarely judged at laptop size.
• Write it down. One document, numbered points, sent once.
• Separate must change from would like. A designer can solve every must. Treat the rest as suggestions.

A simple example

Picture a small coffee roaster in the Lower Mainland reviewing new bag designs. The owner's first note: "Can the name be in red?" Ask why, and the real note appears. Customers keep missing the new decaf. That is a problem a designer can work with. Red might be the answer. So might a clearer hierarchy, a different label colour for each roast or one bold band across the range. The owner gets a better solution because the designer got the real problem.

A checklist for your next design review

1. Is the brief, with its audience and goal, in front of everyone?
2. Has one person been named to make the final call?
3. Did we look at the work at the size and in the place it will actually live?
4. Does each note name a specific element?
5. Does each note say why, in terms of the goal or the customer?
6. Have we described problems instead of prescribing solutions?
7. Have we told the designer what is working and should stay?
8. Is every note marked as a must change or a suggestion?

The principle

Feedback is part of the design process, not a verdict on it. Bring the problem. Trust the person you hired with the solution. Judge the result against the job it has to do.

Serif + Gold works with brands and agency teams to make every round of creative work count. If your reviews keep going in circles, see the work or start a conversation at serifandgold.com.

Read next: "Make It Look More Premium" Is Not a Brief and How to Choose Typefaces for Your Brand.